With this software guru by his side, Slate dove full force into the world of analog modeling for digital platforms—but not the kind of analogue modeling I spoke of before. Not drum samples or bass emulators, not vintage synths or guitar replicas, but a more complicated kind of emulation: the mimicry of behind-the-scenes gear necessary for mainstream pop production, yet intrinsically bulky, prone to malfunction, and unaffordable.

“We live in a digital age where virtual technology is replacing the more expensive boutique hardware technology that, you know, was once only reserved for the elite crowd, the rich crowd,” Slate told me. “I don’t feel that that makes much sense, because why should the art of creating music only be reserved for people with lots of money?”

It cannot be overstated that success of these products rely heavily on Gabriel’s programming acumen. As Slate said, “I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else—well I couldn’t do it with anyone else, because no one has the DSP [digital signal processing] talents that he has. I think he’s the foremost expert in analog/digital signal processing in the world.”

Yet for having the foremost expert in this field by his side, Slate’s products remain remarkably cheap, which gets to the crux of Slate’s ethos: “I try not to make things that I couldn’t afford when I was twenty one.”

However, Slate can only sell his products for a cheaper cost because he has ascribed to one of the only surefire ways of protecting his software from piracy: most of his products require something called an iLok—a “key” which you must physically plug into the USB slot of your computer in order to run the software.

It’s a similarly theft-proof concept to the one UAD employs, but it is far cheaper to implement (around fifty dollars dollars for an iLok instead of the seven hundred and up for UAD’s worthwhile hardware).

Slate recognizes the importance of iLok. “Absolutely. Yes,” he replied when asked if iLok kept the costs down. “We can sell [our products] cheaper because we don’t have to worry about twenty five to thirty, maybe even forty percent of them just being pirated….I sell them cheap, and I like selling them cheap, ‘cause more people can afford them—and that’s a good thing.”

Though Slate declined to comment on the business practices of other companies, it remains common knowledge within the pro-audio community that Waves Audio, one of the most revered plugin entities on the scene, is rampantly pirated (Waves Audio has yet to reply to my request for comment in this matter); indeed, anyone with a working knowledge of how torrents work could easily find a hackable copy of their entire collection of software.

But Slate’s company does not face this problem, and as such, is doing quite well; when asked to supply a “nice tidy quote” on how Slate Digital is performing as a company, Steven gave a characteristically bold and funny response, “we sold a bagillion plugins today,” he told me. “Quote me on that: that’s B, A, G, I, L, L, I, O, N.”

He then obliged with a clarification: “I don’t know the exact numbers right now off the top of my head, but I do know that the lights have been kept on, and we’re hiring, and we’re growing, so that’s a good thing.”

It’s not only a good thing for him—it’s a good thing for the public as well. With the democratic possibilities of his technology only a couple hundred bucks away from an instantaneous download, almost anyone can afford to buy these new Holy Grails.

But there’s a more canny opportunity here as well, one that presses me to bring companies like Slate Digital to the public attention of a Forbes.com readership: there is, potentially, a good avenue here for a venture capitalist; in my opinion, the bubble of pro-audio software is far from bursting—indeed, it’s only just been blown into existence.

Imagine the money to be made investing in these new Holy Grails—not only in the ones Steven Slate has created, but in the as-of-yet unborn plugins future Steven Slates could create. Imagine if you helped empower just one of the countless software designers of little renown but awesome talent?

Now, I would wager, is a good time to invest in such savvy, forward thinking companies, for we live in an age in which the curtain has been lifted on studio wizardry, and we have seen an uptick in the amount of people looking to get into the field of production. It’s counterintuitive, to be sure, to invest in something with no corporeal qualities other than the results heard through your car stereo. But that doesn’t make it any less wise.

Corrections: previously, this article erroneously categorized UAD as a company. It is, in fact, a product line within a larger company called "Universal Audio." Also, I reported the iLok as costing $150.00, instead of around $50. This too was erroneous, and the claim was only made because, unfortunately, that's what I paid for my iLok (all of us get swindled sometimes).

These correction were both pointed out by Jeff Hollman, and I thank him for his judicious and gimlet eye.

For more musings, please follow Nick on twitter (@nickmessitte). To hear him put his money where is mouth is, check out Salmon's Run at Salmonsrun.com